NHL lockout: League, union still talking, but what does it mean?

The NHL and the union are still in talks as arenas remain dari. (Al Bello / Getty Images )

At this point of the labor dispute between the NHL and the NHL Players’ Assn., everyone with any kind of interest in it — and that number might be dwindling — tries to read the tea leaves and find meaning in every twist and turn in what has been a baffling and tedious process.

The league, which locked players out on Sept. 15, met with the union again Friday morning, the fourth straight day they have held negotiations. Good news, no?

Maybe. And it’s only a maybe because the union sent its members this memo, first reported by TSN’s Darren Dreger, and it indicates how far apart the sides are and how great a gap remains between them this deep into the process.

So, maybe it’s not such good news.

But the negotiators are scheduled to take a break and meet again later Friday, which means neither side has totally rejected the other’s ideas out of hand and that they’re talking. At the very least.

In the meantime, more and more days are coming off the calendar and NHL hockey is becoming an ever more distant memory. Games have been canceled through Nov. 30, and the odds of a Dec. 1 start grow dimmer with each day this goes on.